I got these vintage (burgundy and green) feather ornaments from a vendor at a trade show mostly because I wanted to learn how they were made. The one in the center is the one I made.
This is what I started with. 4 white Goose shoulder feathers and a dozen white Ostrich drabs feathers (7 to 11″ long).
In order to figure out how the ornaments I opened up the vintage one to see that the Ostrich feathers were all wired at their bases.
The Goose feathers were glued near their bases where the wires all come together. The wires were covered with florist tape.
In order to burn the barbules off the Ostrich I cover the feather with household bleach in a plastic tub. Warning: you will be creating Chlorine gas when you do this so it’s important not to breath this.
It does not take any more bleach than to cover the feathers. I use tongs to keep them moving for the minute or so it takes to burn away the barbules. You can tell cause the foaming begins to subside.
Use the tongs to pull the feathers out and into some plain water. Pore the spent bleach into a plastic jug to sent to be properly disposed as household hazardous waste.
At this time I used paste cake dyes to acid dye the Goose and Ostrich feathers in the microwave.
Then after a good rinse.
The Ostrich feather need to be pulled out of the water by the stem and patted dry.
The Goose feathers need to be dried in a shear bag in a cloths drier.
After the Ostrich are patted dry.
Sometimes of the barbs stick together I use a comb to separate the barbs before the feather is 100% dry.
I separated them into groups of 3.
Using a curling iron with a 1 to 3/4″ bore to curl the tips of each feathers.
I curled two of the bundles to the right and the other two to the left.
I cut 4 pieces of fairly thin wire about 8 to 10″ long.
I wrapped the last 1″ or so of the bundle with the wire.
I chose wired two of the opposite sets together.
I adjusted the wire on one set so it was narrower and one so it was a little lower and wider and then wired them together.
I pulled the barbs off the Goose feather near the base so there would be a short bare stem.
Then glued them to the base of the wired Ostrich with a dot of Bacon’s Fabric Tac glue. Two on one side and two on the other side at least.
Now it looked like this.
I covered the wire and the base of the Goose with florist tape. I chose the color of tape that was closest to the feathers.
Then used some permanent markers to color the tape to match.
Finished ornament.